As of about mid-day, the news on Buttons is that he has been X-rayed but nothing of consequence was seen. This largely precludes “blockage” as a problem, but it leaves open:
1) An x-ray-invisible string in his intestines
2) An ulcer, which would apparently also explain his symptoms
Next up is an endoscope. Hopefully I’ll hear back by the end of the day.
The vet also reported that he has never before encountered a cat as mild mannered and friendly as Buttons, which fact I can confirm.
And because if there’s anything the internet is short of, it’s cat videos… so here’s a video of Buttons yesterday before we went to the vet.
[youtube -umFi4weE-w]
LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE: He’s been endoscoped, and they found… nothing. When the vet called they were in the process of force-feeding him, to see if he can keep it down (he refused to eat any food on his own). Tomorrow morning first thing they will put barium down his gullet and xray again, to see if it’s going through or if there is some blockage that doesn’t otherwise appear on X-ray.
His stomach looked good, no blood, no ulcers, no foreign bodies. His blood checks normal for white blood cells, so his bowels aren’t perforated. At this point they’re starting to get stumped, and have three working hypotheses:
1) A string in his intestines. This hypothetical string is not balled up into a plug (that would show up on the earlier X-ray), but is strung out and causing irritation, though not yet noticable physical damage.
2) Some undefined bowel inflamation
3) Some delayed reaction to the steroid shot he got a few weeks back to deal with his fur-itch.
Starting to get into “I dunno” territory here.